TEDDY'S EASTER SECRET

Wholly secular in scope, this agreeable bauble introduces a teddy bear who gets left outside one night and stumbles upon the Easter Bunny and his minions as they paint Easter eggs in an enchanted meadow. The fantasy is smooth if not particularly substantial; the main treat are Lunelli's (The Special Gifts) paintings. Eschewing the pastel palette favored by so many illustrators of Easter stories, Lunelli uses dark colors to emphasize the mystery of Teddy's nocturnal escapade through a dense wood. Owls nestle in the shadowed limbs of the trees; a red fox's amber eyes glow. The Easter Bunny looks like a slightly stern grandfather, hunched over a cane and sporting a white beard and spectacles. The endpapers are fun: those at the beginning show plain hen's eggs; those at the back are colorfully decorated. Ages 3-7. (Jan.)